DETROIT, July 30, 2014—Automotive Service Association (ASA) president Dan Risley told FenderBender on Wednesday that pre-sale numbers for the 2014 NACE/CARS Expo & Conference are up 40 percent from the same point a year ago.
The show officially kicks off Thursday morning at the Cobo Center in Detroit, marking NACE’s first go-around in the Motor City.
Risley said that he and his team are shooting for 7,000–10,000 “unique visitors” to the show.
“In the show industry, there are different ways to count visitors. … We will not count people twice. We don’t like doing it that way,” Risley said. “We want people to know that if we say 7,000 people here, we had 7,000 people walk through the show.”
A year ago, NACE failed to draw close to 5,000 visitors in Las Vegas, a far cry from just five years earlier when the show had more than 20,000 attendees in 2009.
Risley had told FenderBender earlier this year that the hope was to “easily surpass 10,000 visitors” this year, and eventually build the show back up to above the 20,000-visitor mark.
The show is growing, though, Risley said Wednesday, and he feels the future looks bright.
“In my mind, it’s already been a success,” he says. “All the hard work that has been put into it, seeing the show floor, seeing the preregistration—we had a really good buzz on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Thus far, it’s already been a success in my mind.”
